Twin girls: starved and tortured by their mother sue the State of Washington, DCYF

by Janine Loutzenhiser

Thursday, March 14th 2019

Kai Martinez

YAKIMA, WASHINGTON – Twin girls, age 12, have sued the State of Washington, Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) on Monday.

Tamaki Law says that the girls are suing after alleging that social workers negligently removed them from a loving and safe foster home, where they had lived from birth to age 7, and then placed them in the home of their drug-addicted, physically abusive biological mother.

According to court documents, their father is currently in jail for murder.

DCYF took the the twins from their mother at birth due to her drug use while pregnant where both girls were born affected by the drugs and alcohol that their mother consumed.

The twins were placed in a stable foster home and remained there for 7 years as the only home they had known.

DCYF then placed the twins back with their biological mother despite her repeatedly saying she wanted to relinquish her parental rights and despite her failure to complete drug and alcohol rehabilitation and safe parenting programs.

According to Tamaki Law attorney Bryan G. Smith, “This is the worst case of child abuse and neglect I have ever seen in my 20 years of representing children in these situations. What my clients’ mother did was not just abuse and neglect - it was torture under any definition. These social workers completely let my clients down and failed to protect them. As a result, they will be forced to live with physical and emotional trauma for the rest of their lives. We are hopeful that by bringing this lawsuit the state will be forced to make changes to ensure that this kind of neglect by social workers never happens again.”

Once the twins were placed with their biological mother at age 7 it is said that DCYF failed to check on their health and safety.

It was also said that in their mother’s home they were isolated in one room and forced to live in the dark as well as starved, forced to urinate and defecate on the floor, and not allowed to attend school.

After several months in their mother’s home with no health and safety checks by social workers it was said that a family member found them weighing 44 pounds which is half of their normal body weight and were laying in their own feces in the dark and begging for food and water.

According to Tamaki Law attorney Vito de la Cruz, “It is outrageous that the State removed these beautiful twins girls from a loving, stable, nurturing foster home where they were thriving and returned them to their drug-addicted, wholly uncaring mother. These little girls’ mother didn’t want to parent them, didn’t know how to parent them, and she expressed this to state social workers and agents on several occasions. That they survived forced starvation, physical abuse, and unspeakable humiliation is a miracle.”

Their mother was convicted of two counts of third degree assault of a child and two counts of first degree criminal mistreatment as a result of the abuse and torture of her children and is serving 10 years in prison for those convictions.